Finance committee  The $5 billion I was referencing was only in regard to an expansion of the rapid housing initiative that was just announced in September. We believe and think that there can be considerably more—although a great amount of that could be in the form of loans rather than strictly gr

Finance committee  Thank you, esteemed Chair, and good afternoon to you and the committee members. Thank you for the invitation to appear today. For those of you who are unfamiliar with our organization, CHRA represents the social, non-profit and affordable housing sector throughout Canada. Our s

Human Resources committee  I can give one quick answer to that. Under the national housing strategy, the largest program was the national housing co-investment fund, the $14-billion fund intended to invest in both the repair and renewal of existing units and the building of new units. There are a lot of h

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. You're absolutely correct. The federal lands initiative represents an opportunity for housing providers to really grow their stock of supply. Let's face it, you cannot build a new property unless you first have the land. During the last election camp

Human Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. There is no doubt about it. As you know, Quebec is the only province that has still not signed an agreement with the federal government to implement national housing strategy measures. If that's okay with you, I will continue in English.

Human Resources committee  We actually did have a conversation with Minister Hussen, perhaps two weeks ago now, in which we reiterated the importance of finalizing an agreement with the Government of Quebec to implement the measures. As the only jurisdiction that has not signed—and it has been two and a h

Human Resources committee  It's difficult to say whether the situation, especially during the pandemic, would have been better had Quebec signed sooner. It does take some time for some of these policies and for properties to be built and put in place. However, since other jurisdictions have signed their ag

Human Resources committee  The study your committee had proposed on urban, rural and northern is so crucial, to reinforce Robert's point, and our indigenous caucus looks forward to working with you on that. As Robert mentioned, we have a lot of data, a lot of information, to provide. I want to reiterate a

Human Resources committee  I'll wrap up with three quick points we would like to propose in terms of recommendations. One is that the Canada housing benefit, which was originally introduced in the national housing strategy, be fully implemented. Right now there's only one province that has signed the nati

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. You have my apologies. Of course, the one time my computer and Internet would go down would be right now, so this is what we call improvisation. As some of you know, the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association is the national association representing the

Finance committee  I would add only, as mentioned in my statement, that having that advocate and all the accountability measures contained within the bill reporting directly to Parliament, rather than a political body, eliminates any potential partisanship or political considerations within those p

Finance committee  First of all, on the support services that essentially augment what social and supportive housing does, I couldn't agree more. By pure coincidence, earlier today we released our pre-election campaign website called ahomeforeveryone.ca. In it, one of our three key asks of all poli

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting CHRA to appear today. As you know, CHRA represents the social, non-profit and affordable housing sector in Canada. Budget 2019 is another step in the government's efforts to deal with housing insecurity. The budget includes measures to increa

Status of Women committee  I think that question really underlies what we saw as the big missing piece from the national strategy. To answer that, I will respond by answering a question I was asked previously in another committee: Why shouldn't we just essentially hand over social and affordable housing to

Status of Women committee  With the greatest of respect to this committee, I would suggest you change the focus of it. As we discussed, shelters are important and they play a role, but they are a band-aid. Shelters, especially for women fleeing violence, should not be seen as a solution. They should be see